General Superintendent
Max Edwards
July 2, 2024
A few weeks ago, Rev. Brian Hammond sent me a link for an internet article that has indeed captured my attention. It is titled: “The True Cost of the Churchgoing Bust ” and was written by an avowed agnostic, Mr. Derek Thompson. (You’ll find a clickable link to it at the bottom of the page). It was no surprise to read Mr. Thompson’s assertion that church attendance is declining in America. We’ve known that for some time. What was surprising was his analysis of the cost or downside of that decline, especially given that he isn’t writing as a Christian.
We know that the WORD admonishes us to continue to faithfully meet together. There are tangible and personal benefits such as encouragement, and accountability.
“Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.” Hebrews 10:23-25
But in his insightful article, Thompson expresses the notion that the decline in church attendance carries not only a negative personal cost but a societal one as well. Here are a few excerpts:
“… Even as secularism surged throughout the developed world in the 20th century, America’s religiosity remained exceptional. 7 in 10 Americans told Gallup that they belonged to a church in 1937, and even by the 1980s, roughly 70% said they still belonged to a church, synagogue, or mosque. Suddenly, in the 1990s, the ranks of nonbelievers surged. An estimated 40 million people—one in eight Americans—stopped going to church in the past 25 years, making it the “largest concentrated change in church attendance in American history,” according to the religion writer Jake Meador. In 2021, membership in houses of worship fell below a majority for the first time on record.”
“As I recently reported, the [US] is in the midst of a historically unprecedented decline in face-to-face socializing. The social collapse is steepest for some of the groups with the largest declines in religiosity. For example, young people, who are fleeing religion faster than older Americans, have also seen the largest decline in socializing. Boys and girls ages 15 to 19 have reduced their hangouts by more than three hours a week, according to the American Time Use Survey. There is no statistical record of any period in U.S. history where young people were less likely to attend religious services, and also no period when young people have spent more time on their own.
“… And America didn’t simply lose its religion without finding a communal replacement. Just as America’s churches were depopulated, Americans developed a new relationship with a technology that, in many ways, is the diabolical opposite of a religious ritual: the smartphone … I wonder if, in forgoing organized religion, an isolated country has discarded an old and proven source of ritual at a time when we most need it. … Finding meaning in the world is hard [and] it’s especially difficult if the oldest [ways of finding meaning] hold less and less appeal. It took decades for Americans to lose religion. It might take decades to understand the entirety of what we lost.”
CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE
Thompson is sounding a warning that as we become less and less connected to people, we are pouring ourselves into soul-less technology as a replacement and losing something significant in the exchange. I think his warning is spot on.